A Return to the Favorite - Disneyland 2011

My very first 1/2 Marathon was at Disneyland in 2010. This is "my" race. I LOVE this race. It is 13.1 miles of pure fun and excitement. It is my birthday weekend. It's Disney, for goodness sake!

This year was no different. We had an amazing time. All of us ran. The weekend started with a Friday trip to Disneyland. We took the kids out of school early and arrived in time to get in a few rides before dinner. We ate dinner at the park and headed over to the expo. As usual, Disney put on a great one. We got all our SWAG and headed back to the hotel. We had an early morning the next day.

Brady and Colby ran the Disneyland 5k. They were not very impressed. It is a fun run, which means it is not timed and any pace is accepted. Brady complained of crowds preventing them from running and long lines for picture opportunities. For the spectators, it sucked that the finish line was inside California Adventure and you don't get to see your loves one(s) finish. Overall, it is not something we will do again.

After breakfast we headed back to Down Town Disney for the kids runs. This was not a great success either. Mimi and I stood in the sun for over an hour. There was some issue with getting the kids started and the entire event was delayed. Everyone was complaining. Once the race finally started, Mimi took off with a purpose and seemed to have a great time. A high five from Mickey at the finish seemed to make the entire process worth the hassle.

After her race we went back to the Expo. Colby had an appointment with Joe Taricani from the Marathon Show. He interviewed Colby and we ran into a few Marathon Maniacs. It was really cool because Joe had them sing happy birthday to me!

After spending some time at the pool we had a birthday dinner at Mimi's Cafe. It was great.

I went to bed early, ready for a 4 am wake up the next day.

As always, I was awake before the alarm. I was sneaking around the room to avoid waking Brady and the kids. I finally was ready and posted something on Facebook that my friend and hotel neighbor Marlene read. We decided to leave the room early and head out to the start.

After stopping to meet friends at the Marathon Maniacs/Half Fanatics picture, we went to the start line. The start area at a Disney run is like no other. Rudy Novotny, the race announcer is very entertaining. Disney does a great job keeping things fun while you wait. It was fun to have Marlene with me again, like at the Princess 1/2. After taking a few pics we were ready to go!

We took our time in the first 5k of the race. We hit the bathrooms, took a few pictures, and had fun hamming it up for the race photographers. I love that in every picture of me I am smiling ear to ear. It is obvious on the outside how much fun I am having!

Once we hit the streets we passed my good friend Christian several times and Marlene and Paul's friends (and my new friends!) the Menting Family. It was fun to hear our names shouted from the crowds. It is the only time I have had fans at a race :)

At some point Marlene asked me if I wanted to run 9:30 minute miles for the last 5k. I was not sure I was capable of that. I have always ran to be comfortable in long runs and never really pushed for time. After we got out of Anaheim Stadium, we really started running hard. That was about mile 9.5. We were able to maintain a great pace (9:30 - 9:50) for each of the final several miles. It was great to push myself and succeed and that faster pace. We came around the corner and hit the finish line in time for me to obtain a personal record of 2:19:02. That is 2 minutes faster than the Princess 1/2.

I had a wonderful time. The entire race experience was amazing. I had great friends and a great run. Happy Birthday to me! See you next year, Mickey!